The first agent for the U.S. Bureau of Education in Alaska, Sheldon Jackson, was the next most prodigious collector. During his annual trips to Arctic Alaska between 1890 and 1900 on the revenue cutter Bear, Jackson gathered specimens from every port of call and commissioned teachers to send him more when the opportunity arose. Whereas Jackson thought he was collecting the remnants of dying cultures, in fact he was gathering masterpieces that future generations of Alaska Natives proudly claim as creations of cultural traditions still very much alive.
Like Nelson and Jacobsen, Jackson was collecting for a museum, the first in Alaska, which he founded in 1888 in Sitka to house his acquisitions. Also, like his predecessors, he collected pieces from all over western Alaska. Of the 100 Yup'ik masks in his collection, the majority come from Andreafski, near present-day St. Marys on the Yukon, with a handful from St. Michael and Nushagak.
